


Fish Out Of Water

by yona (hazuki_15)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Reincarnation As A Fictional Character, Transmigration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24237871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazuki_15/pseuds/yona
Summary: If there was one thing Jane Dorsen wanted more than anything in the world, it was to be reincarnated into the world of a fantasy novel. To be the heroine of her own life story. Never, in Jane's wildest dreams, did she think that the day would come when her wish would actually come true.But why did the world she was reincarnated into have to be from the Harry Potter books and not one of her beloved manga or webtoon series? And what on earth had she done to deserve becomingSeverus Snape, of all people?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to update once a week but since I haven't written anything in a long time, I make no promises.

If you could have any wish of yours granted, what would you wish for?

You may probably wish to be the proud new owner of a diamond mine. Or a ginormous mansion. Or a beautiful face. You may even, if you were the sort to think big, wish to become the King or Queen of a country.

Jane Dorsen would wish for most and none of these things.

Now, Jane was by no means far cleverer than most, and neither was she the sort of person to carefully deliberate over every possibility imaginable before making a decision. But if there was one thing she wanted more than anything in the world, it was to be reincarnated into the world of a fantasy novel, to be the heroine of her own life story—and in the face of a wish like _that_ , all the other wishes surely paled in comparison.

After all, why be satisfied with owning a diamond mine when you could—just to give an example—be reincarnated as a woman who not only owned the deeds to a diamond mine but beauty, peerage, magical power and more besides?

Ever since Jane picked up her first reincarnation manga, she had been hooked. It was impossible not to be, honestly.

Imagine: here was a girl who was ordinary all around, who, like Jane, was nothing to write home about in terms of looks, smarts, talent and connections. She had, whether consciously or not, resigned herself to her boring, humdrum life (also like Jane). But fate had other plans. She would be whisked away from her ordinary life one day and be granted a new one, in a world which she recognized from either a dating sim game she'd been playing or a webnovel she'd been reading lately. A world with magic, fantastical creatures, lavish dresses, and aristocratic heirs who you could tell, from the way flowers would unfurl into bloom and frame their faces at their every appearace, that they would grow up to be important in the future. 

Of course any set of circumstances that seemed too good to be true came with a snag, and hers would be no exception. The girl would have discovered soon after awaking that she was to start a new life as either a villainess or bit character from the villainess's retinue, and would, for the majority of the manga series, do her very best to not set up any red flags and avoid all bad endings.

But even this snag was a tiny one: the girl's newfound circumstances truly were as good as they seemed. Contrary to her assumptions, she had become the heroine of her own story. Wherever she went the people that she met would love her, sooner or later, and she would not want for friends, allies or love interests.

Reincarnation stories were all that Jane thought of in her waking moments. All that Jane ever dreamt about. As the days went by she wished to reincarnate so much into those fictional worlds that she'd been reading about that everything else in her life seemed to dull in colour by comparison.

Getting out of bed, waiting for the bus, working—these things had never been enjoyable, in and of themselves. But the more she binge-read reincarnation manga and webtoons, the more she dragged her feet getting them done.

She wanted to escape her boring life so badly that it hurt.

Neeless to say, discovering that she'd reincarnated as Severus Snape would serve as quite the shock for poor Jane Dorsen.


	2. Chapter 1

Jane awoke with the suspicion that she had reincarnated.

It wasn't just wishful thinking! Okay, so she did dream quite often about reincarnation. So she was only sitting at her dining table waiting for her cup of instant noodles to finish heating prior to waking up, instead of having a characteristic fatal encounter with a truck. Even so, three things immediately stood out to her when her eyes snapped wide open and she'd recognized none of them from her dreams.

The first was the sound of shouting: somewhat muffled, as though by a door, but very loud nonetheless. This was what had woken her up in the first place. It was impossible to carry on sleeping when someone—an adult man, presumably, going by the deep timbre of that voice—was making such a racket so close by. The man was shouting something about a doctor. A normal doctor, he was insisting, to Jane's delight.

Could this mean that there were doctors in this world who weren't normal? Who were, dare she say, _special?_

The second thing that stood out was the blanket, which made her itch something terrible. While she may not sleep on luxurious linens of silk every night, the ones of cotton and polyester blend that she did own were laundered regularly and never, ever felt scratchy. Shifting uncomfortably in the bed, she scowled down at the offending blanket that she was regrettably bundled up in and found yet another thing that made it different. It was a dirty white—no, more of a faded yellow—and unpatterned. Jane would _never_ pick such a thing for herself, and even if circumstances forced her hand, she would've taken a needle and thread to it as soon as possible.

It stood to reason to asssume that she'd reincarnated as someone who unfortunately had to make do with drab, uncomfortable blankets.

The last thing she noticed was the room itself. The ceiling was a dingy grey, as were the walls and the curtain half-drawn over a dimming sky, and so ever-present was the dreary colour that it made the room, which was already not that large to begin with, seem even smaller. But worse still was barrenness. There was no desk, no chair, no bookshelf. No _books_. Nor were there any sort of decoration to speak of: no paintings, no cutout illustrations, no miniature figurines, no flowers—the room felt so unlived-in that, for one chilling moment, she could've sworn she felt the walls closing in.

Before Jane knew it, she'd thrown off the blanket and leapt out of bed. She was about to make a dash for the curtain on the other side of the room when the door opened behind her.

"Severus?"

She froze.

* * *

As a general rule in Jane's beloved reincarnation manga and webtoon, when the heroine awoke for the first time she would almost always catch sight of her reflection in a mirror shortly after. The discovery that she had became quite the beauty—that she had became another person entirely—was a quick and convenient way to show the heroine as well as the readers that she had reincarnated.

Since Severus Snape's room had no mirrors whatsoever and she couldn't think of a good reason to ask for one, Jane had no way of knowing what she actually looked like. But the face of her new father had promised nothing good. She sighed.

She was back in bed, bundled up once again in the scratchy blanket that she now unwittingly owned. Instead of flinging the damned thing as far away as possible, however, she merely sat, as still as a statue, staring at her hands as though she'd never seen them before. Under the dim glow of the lightbulb above her head, she slowly turned her little hands over, then back.

Well, it was not untrue. These hands were indeed completely new to her.

The fact that those hands belonged to a boy—moreover, a boy none other than Severus Snape—was the problem.

From beyond the once more closed door came the sound of arguing, and although it wasn't going to do her new face any favours, Jane could not help but grimace. Her new parents, ladies and gentlemen. Tobias Snape, the man who had doomed the original Severus Snape to a life of jaundiced skin, a hooked nose and bad teeth and likely condemned her to the same, was making it known to everyone in the house as well any next-door neighbors that no son of his was going anywhere near _those_ people. He didn't have to elaborate for her to figure out who he was talking about. Eileen Snape, a woman with straight black hair and a face that'd became pallid with worry, was putting up a valiant fight.

"I'm serious, Tobias. He's lost his _memory_. What if it isn't just a harmless Muggle flu?"

"It's nothing a bit of bed rest can't cure," snapped Tobias Snape. "You're thinking too much. I'm telling you, the boy's fine. He's already got some colour back thanks to all the lying around he's been doing. All we need to do is fetch the doctor to have a look at him—a normal doctor, woman, I'll have none of your quacks in this house—"

Tuning out the voices, Jane stared at her hands as though in a daze. You've done it now, she thought to herself with no small amount of despair. Didn't you want to reincarnate more than anything else in the world? And now you have.

Way to go, Jane.

* * *

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Jane lay on her new bed, moping like there was no tomorrow. Yes, it was no way for a heroine to behave, but she was a hundred percent justified. See, Jane Dorsen truly had no tomorrow to look forward to.

Severus Snape did have a tomorrow, and many of them, too, but adult Snape was also an ugly greasy-haired toerag with a predilection for magical Nazism and picking on children and she would rather eat her drab, scratchy blanket than follow in his footsteps.

Speaking of which—

Jane's new face creased in a frown as an unwelcome thought occurred to her.

 _Could_ she forge her own path? Or would she be required to closely adhere to the role that J. K. Rowling had written? After all, Severus Snape was no bit character.

She recalled a Chinese webnovel that she'd once read on a friend's recommendation, when she ran out of reading material. The main character was a guy who'd reincarnated into a villain of a fictional webnovel. Unlike her beloved manga and webtoons, however, he had to walk a tightrope of avoiding red flags, averting bad endings _and_ not straying too far from character. In one memorable scene, he was even whisked off to the world of the original novel (a punishment for acting out of character far too often) and made to suffer precisely the excruciating fate that he'd worked so hard to avoid.

The thought of being bitten by a giant poisonous snake and left to die somewhere made Jane shiver in disgust. _Ugh._ She would rather live, thanks.

And so, Jane did what any heroine would do were they to find themselves in the same situation: plan.

No text boxes with options had shown up when her new parents spoke to her. Going by the fact that she didn't remeber there being any video games based on the Harry Potter books in her previous life, it was probably safe to assume that they never will. Good. If her every move was restricted to multiple-choice options it'd be a lot harder for her to make key changes to her future.

She also had yet to hear any disembodied voices informing her of whether or not she was straying from character, but that didn't necessarily mean she was out of the woods. Given the fact that she'd barely spoke a word with Eileen and Tobias Snape, it was best to hold off on drawing conclusions for the time being.

So, what could she do to find out whether or not she'd be able to forge her own path? And whether there existed some sort of mysterious system that would ensure that she danced to the author's tune come hell or high water?

As she listened to the angry mutter of Tobias Snape coming from outside her door, an idea came to mind.

For the first time ever since she came to this world, Jane smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that I don't know how to write accents... Oh well.


	3. Chapter 2

The next morning saw Jane brimming with such joy and goodwill that she had to firmly remind herself not to skip whilst leaving the house. Or walk around the neighbourhood with a spring in every step, for that matter.

It was Jane's first morning since her reincarnation and _she was going to have a great day_. She'd done a lot of thinking—and a lot of moping, too—but that was all in the past. Old history. Today was a brand new day, full of opportunity, and she was not about to spend it in abject misery.

Sure, she'd never asked to be reincarnated into Severus Snape. Most heroines never asked to be reincarnated into villainess characters, either. If they could make the best of their circumstances and reach their happily ever afters, so could Jane. Certainly, it had been quite the letdown to discover that she'd reincarnated into someone as ugly and unpleasant as Snape, but on the bright side: she could use magic! Every child who grew up reading the Harry Potter books wanted to go to Hogwarts, and although Jane was long past her Pottermania phase, the thought was no less exciting.

The sun shone merrily down upon Jane as she walked, bathing the world in its golden light. The houses that she walked past were all one and the same—old-timey things that spanned two floors and were missing a few roof tiles here and there. At the sight of them Old Jane would have bemoaned why her new home wasn't a splendid palace. New Jane, on the other hand, rather thought that these houses had their charms.

New Jane also had a Plan of Action, and if she might say so herself, it was a work of staggering genius.

Step one, asking for permission to leave the house, had been a resounding success. Tobias Snape had approved of it straightaway, arriving at the conclusion—all on his own!—that by going outside his son would start to have things other than magic on his mind before long. The thought had cheered him up immensely, and he'd even smiled at her before leaving for work.

Step two, finding out whether she'd reincarnated before Severus Snape could start to spy on little Lily Evans like some yandere creep, had also been successful. Since neither of her new parents had made any mention whatsover of Lily Evans and had looked very surprised when she asked to leave the house, it was probably safe to assume that she could nip the spying in the bud.

The nex step, the crux of her plan, was making friends. _Muggle_ friends, to be more specific. It was impossible to picture Severus Snape befriending Squibs and Muggles out of his own free will, and if there ever was a disembodied voice that existed solely to make sure she stuck to her given role, it'd speak up for sure before such a momentous event could happen.

And yes, smidge of approval that she'd gain from making friends Tobias Snape approved of would definitely make him a lot easier to live with.

"Hello," Jane said brightly to the first group of Muggle children she came across. "Can I play with you?"

The group of Muggle children stared. There were four of them in total, all of them boys, and they were wearing jumpers and trousers that wouldn't have looked out of place in the box of clothes that Jane had found when she'd peered beneath Severus Snape's bed. All of them had smudges of mud in their faces and clothing, presumably from tackling one another to the ground, and she couldn't for the life of her fathom why they were staring at her so judgily.

The smile that Jane was wearing became fixed. Her hand, which had been lifted for a cheerful wave, was now dangling awkwardly in the air.

The tallest boy snorted. "You want to play with us? You?"

"There's no one else around," said Jane in an injured voice before she could think the better of it.

The tallest boy, who seemed to be the ringleader of the little gang, looked at her from head to toe in disbelief. Jane had never experienced such unfair treatment in her life. The boy who was standing next to him leaned in, whispering something into his ear, and the disbelief on his face vanished without a trace.

Jane did not trust the smirk that replaced it one bit.

"Alright. Let's play a game of chase and see how you do. In a count of three, two—"

Jane turned tail at once ran away as fast as her new teeny tiny legs could carry her. She might have screamed a little.

* * *

Like it or not, Jane soon settled into her new routine.

Every morning she'd awake, firmly tell her dubious reflection in the murky bathroom mirror that today was a brand new day, scarf down some buttered toast at the dining table, and dash for the door.

Eileen would do that thing where she dropped her eyes to the floor without a word and suddenly look far smaller than she really was, standing slightly hunched there in the middle of the dining room, and the most awful sense of guilt would seize Jane by the throat. It'd gnaw uncomfortably at Jane as she blurted out her good-byes and grabbed her packed lunch, it'd follow her the entire time she was outside, and no amount of positive self-talking could ever shake it off.

It wasn't that she didn't want to stay in the house, she had tried to tell herself. She did, she really did! But staying behind would feel too much like giving up.

Jane didn't want to give up on her plan. It was so simple that it was brilliant and one day—any day now—it was going to work. How exactly was it going to, she didn't know, but she had faith. She'd already gotten step one and two out of the way, after all, and half of step three, too. (Her head had remained free of disembodied voices, whether or not she spoke to any Muggles; there was no reason to assume that she'd have to spend an entire lifetime playing the role of a villain.)

And so, from morning to noon to evening, Jane would "play" with the little gang of boys.

Of course she'd tried to find other friends, _better_ friends, but all the other children in the neighbourhood steered well clear of the five of them. Tim, David, Joshua and their ringleader, Matthew were notorious troublemakers and their previous target, a boy named Noah, had reportedly broken one his legs trying to get away from them. Their peers knew better to get involved.

The original Severus Snape had known better, too—apparently. As it turned out, he'd ventured outside once or twice and had, according to the boys themselves, skulked and been his strange gloomy self a safe distance away. It was just Jane's luck that his memory hadn't conveniently filled her in on useful little tidbits like this the moment she awoke. She had counted herself lucky once, wanting nothing more to do with the little proto-Nazi. She'd even patted herself on the back for her good fortune.

Little had she known that soon, she would be eating her words.

Of course, the time she spent hadn't been all for naught. She would a thing or two about the boys here and there—the boys' names, for example—and come suppertime, proceed to milk them for all their worth.

Tobias Snape would nod approvingly at each and every one of her latest gold nugget of information. "See what I told you, woman?" he'd say to Eileen the moment Jane's report of the day ended, his voice infuriatingly smug. "He's done loads better getting out and about than he would've trailing after you, getting his head filled up with all sorts of rubbish and whatnot."

Jane's new father would look ever so pleased with himself and it was all she could do not to punch him in the face. Or shoot an apologetic glance at Eileen, who rarely spoke a word at supper and usually kept her eyes fixed on the plate before her.

It was no way to live, spending the majority of her waking hours either evading capture or, if nightfall had come, walking on eggshells. Sometimes, after a particularly trying day, Jane would flop onto her bed and despondently wonder if the world was trying to remind her of her future career path as a spy. But she kept at it anyway.

She was alone in a world that was at once both strange and familiar. There was no one she could trust, with the exception of herself.

Really, what else could she do?

* * *

Panting hard, Jane sped down the road with the four boys hot on her trail.

She cursed as she ran. The boys, for hunting her down as though she were some kind of animal. The neighbourhood, for caring so little about the children who lived there. Not even if one of them broke their leg: the adults had merely shrugged, muttering "Boys will be boys," and when Noah was sent live with his Gran in the countryside, that was the end of that.

She cursed herself, too, as she ducked into alleyways and tried hiding behind lampposts. For not being clever enough to come up with a much better plan. For not being talented in any way—if she had an eidetic memory it would've allowed her to remember the blueprints for all sorts of machinery, from guns to motorbikes to trains, and using this knowledge, she might've been able to live comfortably with Eileen someplace far away from Tobias Snape for the rest of their lives. For being so stubborn.

Jane didn't like to admit it, but there was a snag in her plan. A huge, glaring snag.

She was Severus Snape. It did not matter that she still thought of herself as Jane Dorsen: she would live as Severus Snape for the rest of her life and there was nothing she could do about it. From the second she reincarnated into this world, she had became a boy who had a dour air about him, a hook for a nose and a mouth that failed hard at smiling. She couldn't exactly blame the gang of four for not wanting to befriend her— _him_.

Had she been in their shoes, she would've slapped Snape's hand away, too.

Yet despite of all this, the truth rankled nonetheless. Everything came more easily as long as you were good-looking. Friendships, alliances, romance. A boy with the face of an angel might've been able to befriend those bully boys and bring them back onto the right path.

Severus Snape was not, and would never be that boy.

"There he is!" came a shout from somewhere behind Jane's back. "Get him!"

Swallowing her bitterness, Jane got up from where she'd been crouching behind a lamppost and sped off once more. Everything flew past her in a blur—houses, lampposts, the occasional tree. She couldn't say whether or not she came across anyone else as she ran, but even if she did, it mattered very little. No one had ever spoken up for her. If she wanted to stay away from the boys, she had to stay on the move.

It sounded so simple, but it was the hardest thing Jane had ever had to do. Severus Snape's bony eight-year-old legs weren't made for running day after day. Jane may have managed to outrun her pursuers in the past, but luck could only carry her so far. The boys were moving in on her.

"I call his nose!" shouted the tallest boy. Matthew. "I've been wanting to punch that beaky nose of his in for ages!"

"I call his stupid stupid flapping arms!"

"I'll break _both_ his legs! Shame Noah got away before we could break his other one—"

Fear made Jane's blood run cold. She tried to keep moving, but for some inexplicable reason found herself unable to move her legs as quickly as before. Was this the end? Surely there was something that she could do to keep the boys at arm's length? Jane took in a big gulp of air and tried to keep calm. She was Severus Snape, wasn't she? She was—

He was a _wizard_ , for crying out loud!

In her despiration her mind turned to Naruto, of all things. Didn't shinobi run fast by putting chakra into the soles of their feet or something? Could she do something like that using magic? Taking a deep breath, she tried to channel magic to her feet.

She tripped on nothing instead and went crashing to the ground.

For a moment she lay there, whimpering. Her knees and hands had hit the asphalt hard on impact. The pain was excruciating, unlike anything she'd ever felt before, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to stay there on the ground and cry. But she didn't have the the luxury of time.

Pain flared as she forced herself to her feet. A sprain, perhaps? Her legs were far too wobbly for comfort. If she tried to run again, they'd almost certainly fold beneath her.

Shaking like a leaf, Jane turned around.

The boys' faces were lit up with unholy glee. Now that she was figuratively down for the count, they'd slowed, moving towards her with the easy saunter of hunters who'd cornered their prey at last. In a matter of minutes, they would reach her.

Okay, she told herself, trying not to panic. Okay, so Naruto running hadn't worked. What else? She could—

Oh! She could Apparate, couldn't she? Wasn't that something all wizarding children could do if they wanted to desperately enough? Didn't Harry do something like it to get away from his cousin Dudley and his gang in _The Philosoper's Stone_?

Squeezing her eyes shut, she wished that she were elsewhere with all her might. Where could she ask her magic to take her to? Another part of the neighbourhood? No, it woudn't do for Muggles to see her appearing out of thin air. Home? The thought of returning to that miserable little hovel did not appeal to her in the least.

The image of a children's playground suddenly arose in Jane's mind, unbidden—

And in the next moment, she was falling.

It was a brief fall—the lawn that she was about to fall onto was already quite close, getting closer by the second—but a yell tore out of her throat regardless. She landed with a sound of displeasure that came out as " _Urghk._ "

"Are you alright?" asked a child's voice. There was the sound of shoes on grass.

Lifting her head, Jane stared dazedly.

A little girl stood in front of where she was laying in an unsightly sprawl. Her red hair shone brightly, as though lit aflame by the sun behind her back, and she was peering down at Jane with green eyes that brimmed with curiosity. Jane didn't need roses unfurling about her face to be able to recognize her.

Staring up at the pint-sized version of the future heroine, Jane could almost understand why Severus Snape had been so obsessed crazy about Lily Evans from the time when they were both children.

 _Almost_.

If the world was intending for Jane to become a yandere, it'd have to do that over Snape's dead body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There won't be a chapter next week, I'm taking a break.


End file.
